


In Living Memory

by Skyler10



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Memory Loss, Pete's World, Romance, Temporary Amnesia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 02:53:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11614386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyler10/pseuds/Skyler10
Summary: Rose and Tentoo are off in their TARDIS defending the galaxy when an injury causes Rose to lose her memories of their life together. Luckily, Tentoo is there for her every step of the way to getting them back.





	1. Attack

**Author's Note:**

> From a Nonny ask prompt: "Hello! I reread Restoration and it was even better than I remembered! Also, I saw a post on @doctorroseprompts on the same subject but with Rose losing her memory. And I just love the way you write Hurt/Comfort! So, would you consider writing a fic with her going through this?? If not, I love your work anyway and I'm always waiting for your stories with Rose and Tentoo! :) " Ask and you shall (eventually) receive, Nonny!

The Doctor couldn’t sleep.

Every time he closed his eyes, all he could see were flashes of pink and gold, the angry mauve of central column signaling danger, Rose’s body flailing as she struggled to find anything to grab onto, her head slamming against the coral strut as their TARDIS was blasted through space.

He scrubbed at his eyelids with his fingertips. Wishing he could erase everything about today. Wishing they had just stayed home in their flat where they were safe and warm in bed, tangled up in each other and their disheveled sheets.

Stupid. He was so stupid.

He hadn’t seen the explosion coming. He should have. He should have known the Trrryr would want revenge for their stolen weapons research. That they wouldn’t accept the peace agreement he and Rose had negotiated.

That they would instead blow up the network of laboratories and the entire university along with it.

He and Rose had been celebrating their victory as they danced around the console, readying their young time and space ship to return home. Joking about ice cream flavors. Flirting as always, even though they’d been married too long to still call themselves newlyweds. He had just begun the sequence to leave this wretched, arrogant planet when the first bombs went off.

The young TARDIS didn’t yet have the capability to protect them like her mother would have. Instead, she was shaken and vulnerable. They might as well have been standing in a normal police box.

Sparks rained down around him as the TARDIS screamed. By some miracle, he hit the right levers and buttons to force them into space. They floated as a safe distance from anything, adrift in the void of utter nothingness.

That’s when he realized Rose still hadn’t gotten up. Hadn’t come to him with her injuries, insisting she was fine when she really wasn’t. He should be examining her for a concussion by now while she brushed him away with a good-natured sigh about him being overprotective.

Instead, she was crumpled against the grating.

He called out her name, over and over, trying to examine her without moving her in case she had damaged her neck or spine. Then, she stirred. She whimpered and turned toward him, blinking but having trouble maintaining eye contact.

That and a scan from the sonic were enough. He scooped her up in his arms and took off for the fledgling infirmary.

 

* * *

 

His scans seemed to take an eternity. The technology in the TARDIS was beyond their Earth-time, but still not fast enough for him. He waited, sitting near the hospital-style bed he had laid her on. She didn’t move much but fought to stay awake. When she groaned in pain again, he had had all he could take. He stood over her and placed his hands on her temples.

Even the slightest brush of his mind against hers was enough to make her sigh in relief. He soothed the pain and soreness, even as the TARDIS worked to diagnose her exact injuries. He settled back in his chair by her bedside and tried to get some rest, to regain the presence of mind to care for her properly, but it was no use. Finally, the computer beeped with its completed report.

He ran a hand through his wild hair, taking in the information. Mild brain trauma, just as he suspected. The computer went further, popping out specific pills for her to take. One he recognized as a pain reliever. The other, he couldn’t identify. The TARDIS was confident, however. She shoved at his mind to give them to Rose.

He licked his lips, steeling himself against his trepidation.

“Rose? Rose, love, I need you to sit up.”

She struggled, but with the help of several pillows he placed behind her, she was able to manage it. She still squinted in pain and wasn’t meeting his eyes. He got her to take the medicine, but she still hadn’t said anything yet.

“It’ll kick in soon,” he promised, hardly knowing what he was saying. “Just you wait. Everything’s going to be fine, it’s fine, oh god…” He recognized he was hyperventilating as she sank back down into the pillows. Her eyelids drooped heavily.

Panicked, he did the fastest thing he could think of. He placed his hands at her temples again.

Sleep. Her exhausted body just needed sleep. And he needed to get ahold of himself.

He reinforced her rest with a telepathic nudge toward dreamless, peaceful slumber.

As soon as he was sure he was successful and that she was out, he ran.

He didn’t know where he was going. He just wandered down corridors past door after door. Few opened to anything more interesting than storage cupboards anyway, but finally a familiar one came into view. Their bedroom.

He threw himself on the bed and gripped tightly to her pillow until he was consumed with her scent, just as he had done when they had been separated oh so long ago across dimensions.

He heard a male voice very nearby swearing and weeping.

He realized it was himself.

The TARDIS hum lulled him into his own restorative sleep, and as shattered as his mind and body were from the trauma of the day, he gladly accepted its invitation. 

Many hours later, the TARDIS woke him. He tried to snooze the alarm before realizing the beeping was coming from inside his mind. He reached over to cuddle with Rose and tell the TARDIS to get lost, but when he didn’t feel his wife’s warm body next to his, the events of the previous day flooded back.

Rose was in the infirmary. Injured. He had slept here all night (or, well, what functioned as night on the TARDIS).

He jumped out of bed, only to find the TARDIS had moved the door to the infirmary to connect with the bedroom. He thanked her in his mind and rushed in to check on Rose. Her vitals were holding strong, and she still slept. His entire body sagged in relief.

A ding sounded from a cabinet and, when opened, revealed two breakfast sandwiches and two steaming cups of tea. He took that as a sign that Rose would need to eat soon to regain her strength.

The smell and noise made her stir, and she whimpered as she turned over to face him. She blinked open her eyes and stared at him, meeting his gaze for the first time since the explosion.

He sucked in a breath at the emotion her amber eyes displayed clearly for him to read: Fear.


	2. Awakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose wakes up and is confronted by a very different world than the one she only hazily remembers...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're off! Plenty of TARDIS here as the Doctor tries to explain.

Rose awoke with a pounding headache. More than a headache. She felt like her entire body had been thrown around like a ragdoll. In fact, she was fairly certain that was exactly what had happened.

The only problem was, she didn’t remember why.

She opened her eyes to find a man – a very attractive man, if she was asked for her opinion – in a blue suit. He looked to be having breakfast by her bedside, and there was a plate and a cuppa waiting for her. The sight and smell were comforting to her at first, though again, in a way that she couldn’t place.

Something was missing. Something important.

The other sights and sounds of the room registered next. Beeping and the peaks and dips of a heart rate monitor and a screen with an endless stream of circular characters. Something told her it was another language, which didn’t make sense at all. No language looked like that, did it?

When her location and how she got here didn’t come back to her upon awakening, she froze in terror. Who was this man? Had he given her these injuries, whatever they were? Had he kidnapped her? Were they even in London anymore?

“It’s ok, Rose,” he assured and scooted his chair as close as he could. “You’ll be ok. I did some scans and you have a bit of a head injury. I’m going to try to take away the pain as best I can, but even with telepathy, there’s only so much I can do.”   

“Wh.. what?” Nothing made sense. Telepathy? Was that a cheeky brand name for some kind of medicine? The nickname of some treatment? Why would they call it that?

“I’ve got you, love,” he said softer and reached out a hand to stroke her hair. “Just relax.”

Rose tensed and scampered away from his touch. She was fully clothed, but she still gripped the sheet in front of her as a poor excuse for a shield.

“You’re not my doctor.” It was a statement more than a question. Her voice was low and raspy and dark.

His brow furrowed. “Of course I am. It’s me. I’ll always be your Doctor. Rose? What’s wrong?”

She watched as all the color drained from his face. She was tempted to feel sorry for him, but instead she cowered in her hospital bed, planning her escape.

“How do you know my name?” she demanded. “Where am I? What have you done to me?”

His jaw dropped in devastation, and that gob of his was wordless for a moment. He swallowed and held up his hands in the universal sign of peace. He blinked in shock but bravely faced whatever situation they were in, despite the emotions warring on his face.

“You’ve had a brain injury, like I said.” He blew out a breath. “But it seems to have taken your memories. At least your memory of me, which means it goes pretty far back.”

“Why do you say that?” Her curiosity and compassion for what was clearly his heart breaking overrode her need to escape for the moment. “Who are you?”

“I’m the Doctor,” he said with a rueful pull of his lips into a tiny smile.

She shook her head, knowing it wasn’t so simple. Doctors didn’t call their patients “love” or act like this. Nothing about this fit. But she had to start somewhere, so she went with the simplest option available to her.

“Doctor who?”

He nodded as an escaped tear streamed down his face. That odd smile remained. As if he had known – or at least deeply feared – that that would be her next question.

“Exactly.”  

“What’s that mean?” she protested. He cleared his throat and adapted a more professional demeanor.

“My name is the Doctor. At least, that’s what people call me. It’s more complicated than that, but that’s… that’s me.” He shrugged. He held up a stick with a blue light at the end. “What’s this? Do you know its name?”

Thrown off guard, she just shook her head. This man, this “Doctor,” was peculiar, she could already tell.

“That’s alright. It’s a sonic,” he filled in for her. He flipped it up in the air and caught it with a flourish. Ok, he was impressive, she’d give him that.  

“A sonic what?” Again, she played along, not seeing what his tool had to do with her, but the more information she could get out of him, the better.

“Just a quick scan here…” He buzzed the device at her and blew out a breath of relief. “Good good good, that’s…”

“D’ya mind?” She delicately pressed the sonic to the side so it wasn’t directly pointing at her. “And what’s so ‘good’ about it?” 

“Damage is only temporary. You’ll get your memories back. No telling when, but…” he tilted his head to the side in thought, “still, could be worse.”

She swung her legs over the side of the bed. They were bruised but held her weight as her feet touched the floor. He didn’t try to stop her but watched her closely. She stood without wobbling (much) and asked again, pointing to the sonic. “That thing. What’s it do?” 

“Well, technically, it’s a screwdriver. But it has many uses.” He rambled as he picked up the tray of the mysteriously still steaming breakfast. “C’mon, I can tell you aren’t going to stay in bed, and far be it from me to try to reason with someone as stubborn as you that you shouldn’t wander off while you’re still recovering, so let’s go somewhere more comfortable. Oh, by the way, loo’s in there.” He pointed to an open door. She ignored his comment about her stubbornness and followed where he was pointing.

She was taken aback by the sight of her reflection in the mirror above the sink as she washed her hands. She had aged several years in the time between what she remembered she looked like and the woman staring back at her. Her hair was a few shades darker, her makeup more natural, her formerly teenage babyface lean with the cheekbones of maturity but still too young for wrinkles. How old was she now anyway? If she had to guess purely based on appearances, she'd say mid- to late 20s, though it was hard to tell. 

The Doctor waited in the hospital room until she returned and led her out a different door, down a long orange-lit hallway. The blue paint and hardwood floors turned several times, and she wasn’t sure she could find her way back on her own. How big was this hospital, anyway? Where were all the other patients, and why did something tell her they weren’t going to a visitor’s area?

He opened the door and Rose felt a bit like she had entered a scene from Beauty and the Beast. A large library expanded into the room in front of her. The high ceiling was lined with windows that told her it was morning but were too high to see outdoors. Sunlight flooded in, warming her skin and setting her at ease somehow. She sat down on a comfy-looking couch and automatically curled her legs up underneath her as if she had done the same in this exact spot a thousand times before, though she had never seen it in her life.        

The Doctor hesitated, at first headed toward the spot next to her but then rethinking it and sitting in the armchair opposite her. He handed her a mug of tea and one of the breakfast sandwiches. She thanked him and eyed the tea, but not wanting to appear rude and needing to know what he had to say, she sipped it. It was the best tea she’d had in her life! She quickly took another sip, and it was just as good as the first.

He laughed a little at her shock.

“What?” She took a bite of her sandwich to hide her blush, not knowing what was so amusing to him.

“Nothing.” When she waited for him to continue, he caved in a rush of words. “It’s just… that’s exactly the way you reacted the first time.”

There was a haunted pain behind his eyes. One she suspected was always there to some degree, but now it was threatening to swallow him whole.

“The first time? I’ve had this tea before?” She looked down at her cup and back at him.

He nodded but began with his list of questions instead.

“So you know your name?”

“Rose Marion Tyler,” she confirmed. Her earlier distrust was quickly melting, as much as some natural part of her screamed to be afraid, that something was wrong, that she should know so much more than she did. She ignored that part of her mind and ate her breakfast. She was famished and fairly certain that the kindness in this man told her that he wasn’t the poisoning type.

“Good. But how far back _does_ your memory go? You didn’t know my name, and you don’t know where you are. Which is… complicated to explain.” His long fingers carded through his hair. Really great hair. She wished for a moment that she were the one with her fingers in it. It looked so touchable. And those fingers...

That’s when she caught the glint of the light off his ring.

“You’re married?” she asked, diverting the topic from his much harder question.

To her surprise, he looked as if she had punched him in the gut. He stared for a moment before answering.

“Yes.” He exhaled wearily and focused his attention on his tea mug.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Rose picked up on a darker story there. “Did something happen?”

“You’re avoiding my question,” he observed, finishing off his sandwich and licking his fingers.

“And now you’re avoiding mine,” she countered. She had a feeling this was a man she could banter with. Someone she could be herself around and who would be strong enough to push back against her. Sometimes with Mickey she felt…

“Mickey,” she said suddenly. “I remember we broke up, but I can’t remember why. I left. I left home… But where would I have gone?”

The Doctor sat rigid, waiting for more.

“Well?” she pressed. “Do you know? Did I come here? You haven’t said, where is this anyway?”

Her indignation returned. She placed her now-empty plate and cuppa on an end table and stood, hands on her hips.

He stood facing her. “Prepare yourself. This will be a bit of a shock.”

She should have been scared. But there was a bit of a challenge in his words as well that she couldn’t resist.

“Oh yeah? Try me.”

“Rose Tyler,” he drawled her name like music, “do you believe in time travel?”

 “Yeah, suppose. If the tech was… Why are you asking me this?”

“How about the multiverse theory? Parallel universes where things that happened in your world happened differently? Where you were never born? Where your dad lived and was filthy rich? Where you have a brother, and zeppelins line the sky?” 

Rose furrowed her brow in anger and confusion. “You’re tryin’ to distract me again. Just tell me! Where are we?”

“I’m trying to,” he answered seriously, sending a chill through her. “One last question: Do you believe in aliens?” 

She tried to process where any of this was going. Oh god, she’d just had breakfast with a madman. Where was her mum? Or anyone? Was this a dream? If so, it was quickly turning into a nightmare.

“ ’m sorry, this is…” She ran from the room in desperation. She didn’t know where she was or where she was going, but if she could only get outside, maybe she could recognize something, call for help, anything…

The hallway opened into a room with a pulsing column of light. The light moved up and down in the column with a whoosh-whoosh that calmed her anxious heart. Circles lined the room, ascending into a dome above her. Twisting pillars that reminded her of that stuff in the ocean… coral? Metal grating on the floor. She knew this place. How did she know this place?

In the center of the room was a control panel with infinite bits and bobs, levers and cranks and buttons and dials and even a hammer hanging on by a string. More screens with that circular language.

“Want to see where you are?” His voice behind her startled her.

“What is this? A laboratory?” She shook her head. That wasn’t right. Something about travel. A driver’s seat? But that was ridiculous.

Wordlessly, he crossed the room to a pair of wooden doors. He snapped and they swung open. She couldn’t tell what was outside. How could it be night already? It was just morning in the library.

She gasped as she came closer.

It wasn’t night. It was space.

“That over there is the Milky Way. Home. For both of us, now. I wasn’t born there though. I am from very veeeery far over in that direction.” He squinted and pointed as if his words weren’t total nonsense.

“You expect me to believe that we’re in space?”

“Well, that would be a highly logical thing for you to believe as we are, in fact, in space. I took us here after… after things went wrong.”

“What things?” She glared. “You talk so much but never say anything, has anyone ever told you that?”

His amusement at her disbelief hardened. “Yes,” he answered quietly. “I’ve been told as much. Well! If you don’t like what I have to say, perhaps it is my turn to ask you some more questions.”

Rose shifted her gaze from the pulsing, whooshing column in the middle of the room to the galaxies spread out before her beyond the doorway and back again.

“I don’t see why not.” She plopped down in the open doorway and dangled her feet over the edge.

“Really?” He clearly hadn’t expected her to give in so easily.

“Sure. This is obviously a strange dream. I’m probably really hungover, given the headache, and this is nothing but a weird dream after a night out.”

“I forgot you used to go clubbing,” he murmured, amusement back. “With Keisha and Shareen, yeah?”

“Yeah, we used to go, but I think we haven’t in a long time. Is that because I left?”

“Thought you said it was my turn to ask the questions.” He had her there. She raised an eyebrow and gestured in invitation. “First, what’s the last thing you remember?”

She thought for a while. “It’s just all… fuzzy. Like, it’s there, but I can’t access it? Like when a word is right on the tip of your tongue but for the life of you, you can’t say it.”

“Fair enough. Where do you work?”

“I used to work at Henriks. But there was…” Rose’s headache came back with a vengeance. She clenched her jaw and squeezed her eyes shut. A raging ball of fire filled her imagination. She remembered a loud boom, felt the urge to run, but she couldn’t because it felt like she was falling.

“Hey, it’s ok,” the Doctor soothed. He rubbed her back, and she leaned into his side. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pushed you to remember. I just thought… Anyway. Let’s get you back to bed.”

He scooped her up in his arms, causing her to yelp in surprise and wrap her arms around his neck to hang on. He didn’t seem to mind, however.

She would have protested, but she was somehow already tired again. And once they reached the hospital room, she accepted the painkiller he offered gratefully.

She was almost out by the time it occurred to her to ask. “Doctor?”

“Hm?”

“What did you mean by telepathy earlier? When you were talking about medicine to make the pain go away?”

“I’ll explain after your nap,” he promised. He waited until her eyes closed and placed a light kiss on her forehead. She supposed he assumed she was already asleep, but she felt it. The last thing she felt before drifting off.


	3. Awareness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose gets some answers, most of which she never saw coming, and the Doctor finds an unexpected source of gratitude in previous bad luck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here be: Fluff, humor, a little heartache, more TARDIS exploring, a London flat, and a phone call from a familiar voice...

It occurred to her when she woke that surely she should not be able to sleep in a dream. And that a dream wouldn’t normally last this long. Which meant this was most likely real.

The man was still there, in his chair again, observing her with concern and adoration and, if she didn’t know better, utterly besotted love. Perhaps she was going mad, and he was her method of coping. He was certainly her type. She wondered again where his wife was. Where anyone else was.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” he greeted, putting away the book he was pretending to read.

“Where are the other people?” she asked groggily.

“What other people?”

“My mum, your wife… surely someone else is here.”

He stiffened. She remembered he didn’t like talking about his wife. She wondered again why that was. Perhaps she had left him when he told her he had a spaceship.

“I’ve landed us back in London, while you were sleeping,” he explained without explaining. “But first, there’s something we need to talk about.”

“Ok, is it going to start with why I’m on a spaceship and why you asked me all those sci-fi questions in the library just to tell me we weren’t on Earth?” She stretched, trying to recall what exactly he’d asked her. Parallel universe theory. Aliens. “Hold on. You said you weren’t from the same galaxy as me. Are _you_ alien?”

She scrutinized him, taking in his physical form. Even if he was, he was still dead gorgeous. Too bad he was taken.

“Yeah, weeeeell, part alien at least. It’s a long story. That alright?”

“Which part?”

“My mind, but a few other things.”

“No,” she couldn’t help but giggle at his bizarre answer. “Not which part is alien. I mean, which part is alright? But it doesn’t matter. Both are. Though I do want to hear the long story sometime. But I need more answers about other things first.” 

“Shall we take a walk?” He reached out a hand to help her out of the bed and led her down the hallway in a different direction. He smiled at her as they approached a door. “Open it.”

She obeyed in curiosity and stepped into a fragrant rose garden. Beautifully sculpted bushes framed winding pathways, weaving between fruit trees and fountains and benches and gazebos. It seemed to stretch on for miles.

“She made this for you,” the Doctor explained.

“She?”

The Doctor pointed back to the hallway. “The ship.”

“You call your ship ‘she.’” Rose shook her head. “Such a bloke.”

“Oi, you do too, normally. And she is a she. She’s sentient. Alive.”

“Right.” Rose sent him a raised eyebrow, a non-verbal indication that she wasn’t the only crazy one here. She may not remember much about her life or how she’d made it into space, but at least she didn’t believe space ships were _alive_.

Until a tree grew right in front of her and handed her a juicy peach.

Rose extended her fingers and touched the peach, but quickly withdrew. It was real. Holy shit, was the tree laughing at her?

The Doctor accepted the peach from the tree and handed it to Rose.

“Very rude not to accept a gift from an Offering Tree,” he informed her.

“I have to ask… Am I _high_?” Rose asked the Doctor, ignoring the tree. “I’m not all that experienced at it, but I imagine this is what inspired Alice in Wonderland, if you know what I mean.”

The Doctor laughed. “Well, you’re wrong about ol’ Lewis Carroll, but no. It isn’t drugs. That was one nasty run in with the queen of hearts though. She did _not_ like me, I’ll tell you that.”

“You were friends with Lewis Carroll?” she choose the least insane question out of the many in her mind. “Didn’t he die a long time ago?”

“I did ask if you believed in time travel. You believed we were in space, which we aren’t anymore, by the way, we’ve landed in our flat.”

“Prove it.”

“Which one? Time travel or that we are in our flat?”

“Hold on, _our_ flat?” She stopped them on their ramble through the flowers.

“I did say there are some things you need to know before we walk out there,” he defended. He kicked at the dirt on the path.

“Oh my god, if we’re together, did your wife leave you because of me? Or did you leave her for me?” Rose tried to piece together whatever had become of her life. “And you still wear your _wedding_ ring?” She gave him a look of disgust.

“Damn it, Rose!” He grumbled incoherently as he pulled something out of his pocket. “I was waiting for you to remember, and it was going to be romantic, but you aren’t going to stop until I tell you, so _here_. They’re yours anyway. Take them.” He forced something into her palm and wrapped her hand around it. Something hard and small with a bump that poked her. She slowly opened her hand to reveal a breathtaking diamond ring set. A wedding band of a twist of delicate silver wrapped around the engagement ring.

“I took them off of you when I was running the scans and held on to them for safe keeping,” he filled in when she didn’t say anything.  

“We’re?” She blinked up at him in incomprehension. _Surely_ , if she were married, she would remember… She would, wouldn’t she? The etching on the inside of the wedding band and the storm raging within his dark eyes told her she was wrong. “I’m your wife.”

He nodded and swallowed, setting his gaze on the garden instead of her.

“Doctor!” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He hung his head. He was preparing himself for her rejection, she could tell.

“Look at me!” she demanded. He did. “Do you love me?”

“Now there’s a question I can answer,” he quipped. “Rose Tyler, I love you more than anything in the multiverse. I’ve lived for a very long time, so long you wouldn’t believe me if I told you, but you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me. We are the stuff of legends, you and me.” He took her rings from her right palm and took her left hand in his. He slipped them on. Sure enough, they were a perfect fit. Not just for her ring size, but within the tan lines on her finger she hadn’t noticed until now.

“And do I love you?” She already knew the answer, of course. She knew she wouldn’t have married him if she didn’t, but more than that, she knew it when she looked at him. It went beyond her initial physical attraction. They shared a connection that sparked every time he touched her, every time he said her name, every time he answered one of her basic questions as if it tore him apart. No wonder he hadn’t wanted to talk about his wife. She was the one asking him if he was married.

Instead of waiting for his answer, she wrapped him in a tight embrace. He returned it instantly. This felt right. No matter what he said about flats or space ships, this was home.

“Yes, I believe you do. Or did,” he answered at last. “Be a bit weird for you to love a stranger, I suppose.”

“I think I do, though,” she answered, pulling away from their hug. “I can’t say how, I just know I do. Even though I couldn’t even remember your name.”

They both laughed a bit at the strangeness of it all, and he took her hand.

“Maybe being home will help. Let’s go.”

“Doctor?” she asked as they walked. “You keep calling the flat home, but isn’t this our home too? The ship?”

He grinned down at her at that in a way she didn’t understand. “Yes, it’s complicated, but yes. The original version of this ship was our home for... well, centuries for me, though you only traveled with me a few years before we were separated against our will. But you came back to me and we grew a new TARDIS. That’s what this is. Time and relative dimensions in space.” He gestured to the hallway they were exiting and the domed control room with the whooshing column they were entering.

“We grew this? What, in our garden?” she teased.

“Actually, not far off. Mostly in a spare room, though she spent a while in your parents’ garden, yes.”

“My mum doesn’t have a garden,” she challenged.

“At the Powell Estate, your mum didn’t have a garden, but here, in this universe, she is married – or remarried, depending on how you want to look at it – to Pete Tyler, CEO of Vitex Industries.”

“In _this_ universe?” She laughed at how utterly insane all of this was. She wasn’t sure if she believed him, but she desperately wanted to and the way he said it all made it sound like a game. Like he was waiting for her to give up on him, to say it was too much to believe and that he was a terrible actor. But the thing was, she trusted him. It was something so written into her soul that she just did. Beyond all rational comprehension.

“Ah, yes. We traveled together and found a parallel universe. Long story short, we live here now. And your mum came too. She married Pete, and they had Tony.”

“I never thought I’d have a brother.” She shook her head and tried to take it in. “Can I see them?”

“Not yet. Let’s… let’s focus on helping you remember, then we’ll tackle that one.”

“But don’t you think seeing them would help me… You’re guilty about something, aren’t you?” She read him like a book. For the millionth time, she didn’t know how she knew it. Just that that was his guilty face and she had another puzzle piece in why she was injured.

“Rose.” He pulled her to a stop before she could open the wooden doors to the outside world. “I tried, I should have… I didn’t see it coming. I’m so sorry. There was an explosion. You hit your head.”

“Did you cause it, the explosion? Was it your weapon?” She placed a gentle hand on his cheek.

“No, not directly. I should have been more clever, though. I should have protected you. That’s my job.” He took in a deep breath. “And I failed.”

“Hey, I’m alive, so whatever you did, you didn’t do it that badly.” She gestured to her intact body and noted how he let his eyes wander a brief moment down her form before schooling his attention back on her face.

“We thought we’d won,” he said in a hollow voice. “We brought world peace to another planet, and it literally blew up in our faces. Again.”

“Sounds about right, from what I remember about the world,” she jabbed.

“Still, do you forgive me?”

“There’s nothing to forgive.” His eyes still pled with her, however. “Alright, yes. I do. Even though it sounds like it wasn’t your fault at all.”

“I wish I could keep you safe, always.” He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, and she thrilled at the intimacy of the contact. It was all happening so fast. She turned back to the doors and looked over her shoulder at him with a tongue-touched smile.

“So can I see this parallel universe now?”

He pushed open the doors this time, and they squeaked the way any old wood does. Except this wood was on a time machine. Space ship. Box. She had thought it would be huge, what with the expansive garden and library and all, but it was just… a blue police box. She walked around it and back to him.

“How?”

“Bigger on the inside.” He grinned as if it was his catchphrase.

“Yeah, can see that…” she affirmed in awe. She directed her attention to the much more human surroundings of their flat. Perhaps the most jarring was the arrangement of wedding photos on their mantel. And the mess of children’s games and books and Legos in front of the television.

“Doctor?” A chill shot through her. “We don’t…?”

“Don’t what?” He followed her gaze to the array of toys on the floor. “Oh! No, Tony’s over a lot, so we just keep some things here for him. Jimjams, coloring books, food he’ll actually eat. We don’t have our own… at least, not yet. We’ve talked about it, but no luck.” He scratched at the back of his neck and avoided her gaze, missing her gasp at the implication.  

“And you’re sure I’m not?” She felt the blood drain from her face. He hadn’t mentioned…

“I’m positive.” His voice was hard and decisive. “I checked. My scans, they would have told us.”

“What is it, Doctor?” He was shaking his head in dark amusement.

“We’ve been trying for a few months… but turns out I’m so grateful you weren’t pregnant, Rose. We could have lost so much more than some of your memories, which will be back soon enough. Just you wait.”

“You think it won’t be long now?” She decided to focus on the hopeful end of his statement than the insinuation that she could have been enduring a miscarriage in addition to her amnesia had things gone differently.

“No way to know for sure, but for as long as it takes, Rose, I’m here. Let’s focus on trying to remember together and, eventually, things should start to fall back into place as your brain makes familiar connections.”  

“Alright.” She lifted her head in courage. “You gonna show me around then? Lead the way.”

 

* * *

 

It was so _alien_ , for lack of a better word, walking around in a completely unfamiliar flat, being told it was your own. Your rumpled bed where you supposedly slept with this man who was your husband, wedding photos with your smile, the image of a little brother you never knew you had, hearing that your long-dead father was not only alive here but married to your mum. Having to be shown where you put the groceries, confused by your own organizational system, flipping through your phone contacts and not recognizing the names while your self-declared part-alien prepares dinner.

Rose felt a bit helpless, if she was honest. She sat on the sofa at his instruction to rest, but she couldn’t relax surrounded by so many details of the life she couldn’t recall.

Suddenly the flat touch-screen mobile in her hand rang. She answered, thanks to the instruction on the screen as to which direction to “swipe.”

“Hello?” She held the mobile up to her ear, hoping she was doing it right.

“Rose!” Jackie’s voice was a balm of comfort to her daughter. “Pete’s home from Guatemala tonight. Think you two could swing ‘round for tea tomorrow to celebrate?”

“Sure, Mum.” Rose tried to keep the emotion out of her tone but finally hearing a familiar voice was such a relief.

“Everything alright, love?”

“Yeah…” She stalled, unsure if she should say anything.

The Doctor poked his head around the corner and saw she was on the phone. Rose covered the bottom of the smartphone, assuming the mic was in the holes on that end.

“It’s Mum. Can I… Would it be ok if I invited her over after dinner?”

The Doctor hesitated but nodded. “How does an hour sound?”

“Sounds perfect!” She smiled at him and he returned it, unable to refuse her anything that would make her happy, even though she could tell he was worried about how her mum would handle the news.

“Actually,” Rose said into the phone, “would you be able to pop by tonight? There’s something I’d like to talk to you about.”

“Oh my god, are you pregnant?”

Rose winced at Jackie’s assumption but quickly set the record straight. “No, nothing like that. This is more… complicated.”

“More complicated than a baby?”

“Yes,” Rose sighed, finally experiencing a familiar emotion: frustration with her mother. “Would an hour work?”

“Of course. This sounds serious so I’ll leave Tony with the neighbors. Little Colin’s been coming over more and more lately. I think his mum’s got a thing with her gardener but Colin’s a good boy so I don’t mind the two of them being friends. Goodness knows on the estate there were plenty of families you hung around that were less than angels but look how you turned out.”

Rose’s frustration melted back to gratitude as her mum rambled on.

“Yeah? Think I turned out alright?” Tears pricked at her eyes to hear her mum’s approval of the life Rose herself couldn’t remember.

“Brilliantly, if I do say so myself.” Jackie’s voice was warm with motherly affection and pride.

“Thanks, Mum. See you soon.”

The Doctor sent her an understanding half smile and wrapped her in a hug. He pressed a kiss to her head, and she found her heart falling hard for him (apparently, all over again, but for the first time as far as her mind was concerned).

“C’mon,” he invited softly. “Dinner’s ready.”


	4. Allies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jackie comes for a brief visit and leaves, there is only one bed, and a commercial comes on that sets us up for the next chapter in a week or two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter for a while while I'm on vacation. Enjoy!!

The doorbell rang an hour later, as promised, and it was all Rose could do to hold it together at the sight of her mum. Jackie was older, no doubt, and dressed differently, but she was still the same woman Rose remembered.

When they were all settled in with tea mugs in hand, the Doctor began the story, detailing parts he hadn’t had the chance to share with Rose yet about their mission for an organization he said they worked for and that her dad ran: Torchwood. Rose tried to hide how impressed she was with herself. Being an agent who brought justice to the universe sounded far more badass than anything she’d thought she was capable of. If this was the kind of life meeting the Doctor had led her into, no wonder she’d married him. Just hearing him talk about their adventures made her want to snog him.

He slowed and ducked his head as he got to the part of the story about Rose’s injury.

“Let me say this part?” Rose asked. He nodded and went silent. She took her mum’s hands in her own and began with the good news. “I will be ok. The Doctor says everything’s going to be back the way it was in time.”

“Sweetheart, you’re scaring me,” Jackie interrupted. “What’s this about _time_? What’s wrong with her?” Jackie addressed this last part to the Doctor.

Rose continued. “It’s not his fault, Mum. But I’ve a head injury and I lost part of my memories. Didn’t even remember the Doctor. Still don’t remember anything except what he’s told me. I know I left home, left you on the estate. But everything else the Doctor has been telling me, hoping it’ll all come back soon.”

“But you remember me?” Jackie’s shock warred between angry looks at the Doctor and sadness for her daughter.

“Yeah. Well, you from about 2005 and back, but still, there’s so much missing.”

“The memories will come back,” the Doctor reassured them again. “It’s just a matter of--”

“Time,” the women chimed in unison.

“Yes, we know all about time around here, don’t we?” Jackie responded, not hiding her bitterness.

“Stop it, Mum,” Rose defended the man who felt like a new boyfriend but was actually her husband. “Like I said, it’s not his fault this happened. It just did.”

“Heard that one before,” Jackie mumbled but changed the subject. “Could have fooled me though about you not remembering him. Still acting the same as always. Him looking at you like you hung the moon, you standing by him when something goes wrong. ‘S the way it’s always been with you two.”

“Yeah?” Rose grinned up at the Doctor who was trying to sneak out of the room by gathering their now-cold tea mugs. His lips turned up in a sheepish smile but he left the room without protesting the truth of Jackie’s statement.

Jackie waited until he was safely in the kitchen and sized up her daughter as she had done many times before. “You still love him.”

“Mum, I hardly know him. I mean, yes, we’re married, but without my memories…”

“Doesn’t matter, though, does it?” Jackie raised a knowing eyebrow. “I can tell. If you weren’t already married and the both of you had just met – how it probably feels like to you right now – you'd be telling me all about your new bloke, wouldn’t you?”

“Who knows?” Rose hedged but she was blushing as bright as her namesake. “Is it really that obvious?”

“Well, I was there from the beginning, at least when you came home between your travels, so it’s obvious to me because I’ve seen it before.” Jackie was wearing her Mum Knows Best look so Rose didn’t argue.

“So you approve?” Rose asked, still feeling more like they were back in their flat on the estate rehashing a first date than discussing a marriage she couldn’t remember.

“D’ya think he’d still be around if I didn’t?”

Rose giggled in agreement, which Jackie joined in just in time for the Doctor to come back.

“Oi, what’s so funny?” he protested. “I’m guessing it’s about me then? Oh, it always is.” He waved a hand and started to walk off in a mock-huff, but Rose grabbed his hand as he passed behind her.

“Come back, come back,” she laughed. “Yes, it’s about _us_ but in a good way. Was just telling Mum I’d make you my boyfriend if you weren’t already taken.” She winked, and he grinned.

“Well, that is very good to hear from one’s wife,” he laughed.

Jackie’s face fell in realization of the gravity of the situation. “What are we going to tell Pete? And Tony! He won’t understand.”

“Pete will know as soon as we debrief at work tomorrow,” the Doctor explained. “I’ve set up a meeting with him first thing.”    

“Tony doesn’t have to know,” Rose chimed in. “I can play along and you all can fill in where there’s something I don’t remember.”

“That could work,” Jackie affirmed before the Doctor could refuse.

“Oh, alright.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “But we’ll make sure one of us is with you.”

“Who knows, I could regain my memories overnight.” Rose voiced her hope.

The Doctor didn’t reply, but he and Jackie exchanged a look that told her it was still a very “Rose” thing to say, even this far in her future.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy as Rose hoped.

\----

Jackie left late that evening, and the Doctor and Rose decided they should seek sleep if they were to meet with Pete in the morning. The only question was… where?

“I’ll take the couch,” the Doctor volunteered.

“No, it’s your bed too,” Rose countered. “That wouldn’t be right for me to kick you out of your own bed. We can share, yeah?’

“But…” The Doctor tugged his ear. “It’s like we just met for you. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“It’s just sleeping.” Rose shrugged. “I promise I won’t try to jump you in your sleep.” She winked at his blush and noticeably checked him out.

“Likewise,” he squeaked as her gaze lingered in curiosity where it shouldn’t. “D’you, um, do you want to change first?” He gestured to the en suite but then remembered she didn’t know where her own jim jams were. He opened a drawer and pulled out a modest but comfy T-shirt and shorts for her. Rose caught just a glimpse of something more lacy as he shut the drawer.

“Be right back,” she promised as she grabbed the sleepwear and headed to get ready for bed. Her cheeky grin faded as she faced the unremarkable necessities of another woman’s life. It was all hers, of course, but a sort-of future her. Her makeup selection and jewelry were far more posh than anything Rose would have previously dreamt of owning someday. Her sparkly pink toothbrush in the holder next to his plain blue one painted an almost too-perfect caricature of married life. She shook her head and told herself to focus. There was an adorable man out there waiting for her, and she couldn’t wait to see if he was open to a little – strictly innocent – snuggle.

\----

Rose half-hoped she would wake up in his embrace, but true gentleman to his word, he was safely on his side of the bed the next morning. He was sleeping so peacefully, she didn’t want to disturb him. She stayed in bed counting his freckles and admiring his long lashes and wondering how she had gotten so lucky. She thought she could stay there all morning… that is, until her stomach rumbled, insisting on breakfast.

She fumbled around in the kitchen until she found some toast and jam, then flicked on the telly to see what the world was like now. Not so different, it seemed. Technology had come a long way, but she didn’t know how much was being in a different universe and how much was time passing. The zeppelins in the background of the news footage were a bit of a shock, despite the Doctor’s hints. And then an advertisement came on with a face she was not prepared to see, the difference in this universe that mattered most: the smiling face of a middle-aged Pete Tyler.

“Trust me on this,” he crooned at the camera, holding a bottle of cherry “health drink.” Rose clutched her tea mug as tears rolled down her cheeks. He was alive, so very alive. She knew he was, of course, the Doctor and her mum had said, but it was an entirely different thing to be confronted with an image of him. It was silly, crying at a commercial, but it was so beyond her wildest fantasies as a fatherless child. Sure it wasn’t really her birth father. It was a parallel man in a parallel life. But he was real and married to her mum and successful and … and she was going to meet him this morning. The Doctor had said they were debriefing with Pete this morning at Torchwood. She had been consumed at the time with plans of how to explain the situation that the emotional weight of seeing her father in person hadn’t settled in yet. How would she handle seeing him, being in the same room as him?   

As if on cue, the Doctor appeared in the doorway just as the commercial ended. He seemed to pick up on the situation and sat down next to her. She set her tea on the end table and accepted his open arms. He wrapped her in a wordless embrace until he kissed her hair and she loosened her grip on him.

“I’m sorry, Rose, I should have warned you—” But Rose cut off his apology.

“Again with the apologizing for something that isn’t your fault in the least. At least I know what your bad habits are now,” Rose teased before softening her tone. “What’s he like?”

“Ah. Hm, Pete. Petey Pete Pete…” The Doctor pondered for a moment, and scratched his neck. “Quite protective for only a parallel dad, for starters. We’d barely been reunited a full day when he asked me what my intentions were toward his daughter. And he didn’t let me answer! Warned me all about how I had better treat you right or else. I’d known you first, so it was rather unfair, I thought.”

This made Rose giggle, so he went on.

“He’s shrewd in business, sensible, he has the kind of authority where he doesn’t throw it around unless it’s in the name of fun or a last resort… He loves his family and respects you as a near-second in command at Torchwood. He is a good salesman, but not because he’s manipulative, quite the opposite: He says exactly what he means, so people trust him. He makes your mum happy, and he took me in when I had nothing but you and the contents of my pockets. He’s a good man, Rose.”

“Thank you,” she whispered, getting emotional again. She gave him a quick squeeze of a hug and took her mug and plate back to the kitchen. It was time to face the day. She was nervous to talk to her (parallel) dad, but she had a feeling that with the Doctor by her side, she could do anything.


	5. Arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pete is interrupted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! :D
> 
> (To be clear since the first paragraph could be read two ways: Canary Wharf is the district where the buildings are. Torchwood Tower is the name of the skyscraper.)

Canary Wharf – the home of Torchwood One – loomed larger the closer they approached. Rose sucked in a shuddered breath and tried to not look too cowed as she let her gaze wander up to the top of the skyscraper she was about to step inside. It wasn’t so much the size of the building – she was a born and bred Londoner, after all – but the man who she would meet inside. And the truths about her life she was about to encounter.

“Ready?” The Doctor took her hand, and she squeezed it in reply.

“As I’ll ever be.” Rose stepped forward through the building’s door and was immediately greeted by a flurry of activity. They checked in at the security desk, flashing their badges, and proceeded past all the hubbub. Aliens for transfer, office personnel, and field teams all hustled by, none escaping Rose’s keen eye.

The quiet background music of the lift jarred her in contrast to the busyness outside. She gaped up at the Doctor as a flood of questions spilled out.

“Was that a fish tank with a _monkey_ inside? And what’s with the receptionist’s eyelids? And do _we_ wear uniforms like that with those big guns?”

The Doctor answered her questions in order. “Not exactly a monkey but close; she’s from Serci 5 so vertically closing eyelids are normal for her species; and no, you and I have our own style when it comes to field work that does _not_ include guns.” He winked at her and gestured to his suit in demonstration of his idea of appropriate fieldwork fashion.

Rose started to ask more questions, but before she could, the lift dinged in indication that they had arrived at Pete’s floor.

* * *

 

Pete’s assistant was missing from his desk so it was Pete himself who greeted them.

“Good morning! Ianto’s gone home for some well-deserved rest, but I came straight to the office when we got back. Far too much to get done, I’m afraid,” Pete explained, gesturing in invitation to the two chairs opposite his massive oak desk. He settled into his desk chair and smiled at the Doctor and Rose. “Now, you said there was something urgent to attend to first thing?”

He was everything and nothing like Rose had always pictured. He was friendly but carried an air of authority, just as the Doctor had said. But also, like her mum had told her all her life, he had a twinkle in his eye of another mad idea always brewing.

“There’s something you should know about our last mission,” the Doctor began. “There was an accident with the Trrryr. We thought they had accepted the peace agreements, but it was all a sham. They destroyed it all, Pete. The university, the laboratories, everything we had in place to ensure a better future… It’s gone. We failed.”

Pete nodded grimly. “We’ll contact the Shadow Proclamation to ensure the violence ends here. I don’t want a civil war on our hands. Do you think they followed you back?”

The possibility hadn’t even occurred to Rose.  She wondered if it would have if she had all her years of experience in her memory to pull from. What if all this time the Doctor had been too concerned about her to prevent an intergalactic disaster, maybe even an alien invasion on Earth?

The Doctor furrowed his brow as he pondered the question. “No, at least, I don’t think so. I took us into space first; we didn’t come straight back. Rose…” He looked to her and swallowed. “The TARDIS didn’t shield us from the explosion ourselves. Rose lost some of her memories.”

Pete clenched his jaw. “How many memories?”

Rose answered for herself, emotions winning out over her self-control and their agreement to let the Doctor explain. “Last I remember, I was 19. And you were dead. Forever. I mean, I know you’re a different man, but… oh god, you’re alive.” Despite all her attempts to keep it together, tears welled up. She hugged her arms as if she could forcibly hold back the overwhelming war in her heart.

Pete stood and rushed around his desk to beckon Rose into a consoling embrace. She gladly accepted, hugging her daddy for the first time that she could remember.

“It seems to go back to the explosion the night we met,” the Doctor filled in. “The human brain is a funny thing. Took this last explosion and rewound to the first one. The memories will return in time, but we’re not sure just how _much_ time.”

“The Doctor… he’s been helping me,” Rose explained. She pulled back, awash with shame that she was crying on the shoulder of a near-stranger. “He’s been wonderful.”

She sent her husband a small smile of gratitude, and her heart melted once more at the concern written in his features as he observed her interaction with her father.

“I see some things never change,” Pete remarked, more in response to the love on display between them than Rose’s words. “You’ve been taking good care of her then, I take it?” He looked to his son-in-law with a glare of fatherly protectiveness that almost made Rose giggle.

“Of course,” the Doctor responded in seriousness.

“And Jackie knows?”

“Yeah, we told Mum last night,” Rose answered. “Did she say anything?”

“She hinted that something was wrong, but not what exactly. Just that you wanted to tell me yourself. Are you hurt otherwise?”

Rose shook her head, trying to hide her incredulous smile that she had a dad to ask such questions.

“I did the most thorough checks the TARDIS is equipped to do,” the Doctor answered as well. “Our next stop is the Torchwood med unit, though.”

“Hmm, yes,” Pete responded. “And then we’ll decide what to do about your normal field work duties until the memories return. There is a situation north of the city I was going to assign you to today, some unidentified aircraft crash, just a standard meet and greet, but I can call in Jake and Gwen instead.”

“Hold on!” Rose interjected. “I can still go. I may not have my memories but I’m not an invalid!”

“Should have known,” Pete sighed with a shake of his head.

“She’s still Rose,” the Doctor finished for him.

Even more annoyed now, and a bit proud that stubbornness was apparently still part of her current-self’s persona, Rose stood from her chair again and turned to the Doctor. “When I started traveling with you, it had to be for a reason. You wouldn’t have taken just anyone on board. Was I good? At all this, aliens and everything? Even back then?”

The Doctor laughed a bit in admittance. “Yeah. Yeah, you were good. Saved my life, you did. Right from the start.”

“Well then.” She folded her arms, this time in resolution. “Nothing like learning on the job then, right?”

Pete still hesitated. “This is dangerous work, Rose. We just don’t know what’s out there. You may have started off with an immersive experience with the Doctor, but even after years of traveling with him, you still put yourself through the standard Torchwood training. There’s a lot of protocol we have to follow to ensure—”

Pete was cut off by a rumble.

“Did the building just shake or was that my imagination?” Rose asked, suddenly not feeling quite so brave.

The rumble shook the building again. Another soon followed. The rumbles grew in intensity until the pictures on the wall began to fall and a trinket or two fell off Pete’s desk. A framed photo fell over, revealing a smiling Rose holding a blond child she recognized as Tony.

A voice shouted over an intercom as if through a police radio. “Pete, the crash north of the city isn’t here. It’s simply… gone. We can’t track them!”

“No problem, Jake,” Pete replied, holding down a button on his desk phone. “I think we’ve found them.”

The Doctor was already moving toward the door. Rose followed close behind as Pete turned to his computer monitor and began typing furiously.

“Shouldn’t he get out or something?” Rose asked as they headed for the stairs. “I mean, I know it’s not an earthquake, not a real one, but is he safe?”

“He’s as safe as he can be. I’d explain it, but we haven’t got the time. Just know your dad’s office is not going to come crumbling down anytime soon,” the Doctor assured.

Instead of going down, he took the ascending staircase. She followed without questioning that one; she may not have known him long, but she could tell he wasn’t the type to run away from danger.

 _‘S like you two go looking for trouble,_ she heard a voice in her head say. Whether a real memory or just something she imagined her mother would say at a time like this, she ignored it and focused on keeping up as he ran out onto the roof to confront the building’s attackers.

And trouble is exactly what they found.


	6. Antidote

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aliens invade, Rose sustains another injury that's actually a healing, and all ends happily ever after.

Torchwood agents flooded out of all four doors on the corners of the roof. The tall, column-like spaceships of the Trrryr floated in the middle as their crews’ combat boots thundered down the ladders from their ships to the rooftop. Jaws clenched and knuckles white around their weapons, the Torchwood agents and green-tinged humanoid Trrryr soldiers stared each other down. All fell quiet.

The Doctor stepped forward.

“Your fight isn’t with them, Trag,” he called to their leader. “I’m the one who brokered the treaty. It’s me you blame, not Torchwood.”

“Are you or are you not their agent?” Trag shouted back. “I don’t take sacrificial lambs. I take down armies.”

“I’m telling you--” But the Doctor was cut off as Trag raised his gun and pointed it at him.

“I’m fine with starting with you if you’re asking for it, however,” Trag threatened.

Before she knew what she was doing, Rose charged forward and put herself in front of the Doctor.

“If you want him, you’ll have to go through all of us, first.” She desperately hoped the other Torchwood agents were as loyal to the Doctor as she guessed. The agents closed in another meter on Trag and the alien soldiers, never faltering under the pressure and danger. A hint of a smile played at her lips. She may not remember any of their names, but she had their loyalty. The Doctor stepped up to Rose’s side and took her hand.  

Trag laughed and lowered his gun, approaching the couple. “And you think you aren’t next? Rose Tyler, the thorn in my side for far too long. I should like to see how brave you are in my harem. Yes, no sense in wasting such beauty.” He raised a long-nailed finger to scratch it down the side of her face. She shivered but held her chin high.

“Oh no, you don’t,” growled the Doctor. He whipped out his sonic and pointed it at Trag’s ray gun. The disabled gun sparked and burned the commander’s hand, causing him to drop it in surprise.   

That’s when all hell broke loose.   

The Doctor set about disabling every gun in range. Unfortunately, he hit a few of the Torchwood stun guns in the frenzy. The soldiers and Torchwood agents fell to hand-to-hand combat. He used the distraction to pull something out of his pocket and fiddle with it for a second.

“Rose!” The Doctor called to his wide-eyed wife. “Take this!” He tossed her a thick gold pen with a pink light at the end. It looked like his sonic, but lighter. It fit her smaller hands perfectly.

“Stay out of the fight; just point it at their guns and press the silver button!” he instructed. She nodded, still frightened but comprehending, and he ran off to the other side of the roof.

She swallowed and thrust the pen out in front of her the way he did with his screwdriver. She tried to steady her shaking hands and aim true.

“Shit! Stay focused, Rose!” a male Torchwood agent with blond spiky hair called. “Damn near got my comm!”

“Sorry!” She fumbled with the pen and stepped closer. This time, the pen’s sonic waves hit the raging soldier’s gun just right. The alien screamed and dropped the weapon, giving the blond agent the perfect opportunity to subdue him.

“Jake!” a female agent called to the man currently giving Rose a grin of victory. “Could use a little help if you two are done gloating!”

Jake and Rose ran over to help her, and the pattern continued. With eventually two or more agents to every soldier and Rose or the Doctor disabling their weapons, the tide turned. In the end, Trag and his second in command stepped forward to meet the Doctor and Rose as they surveyed the fallen weapons around them.

“You should know, Doctor, the signature of Trrryr warfare,” Trag taunted.

“Oh yeah, what’s that?” Jake called. “A shitty left hook?”

“On the contrary,” Trag answered, still staring at the Doctor unwaveringly. “The element of surprise.”

He roared and three soldiers who were assumed unconscious sprang to life. They rushed at the Doctor and Rose. The Doctor could hold them off, but with Rose having no memory of her fighting skills, muscle-memory and strength only got her so far. She took or avoided blow after blow but, with the help of Torchwood agents around her, was still standing.

That is, until an impossibly tall, siren-beautiful, fierce soldier tossed her green shimmering braid over her shoulder and sent Rose a haughty smirk. Rose wiped her sweaty brow and faced her opponent. Instead of striking out a punch or kick as Rose expected, the soldier grabbed Rose and threw her with all her strength. Assuming the target was to throw Rose off the roof, the soldier missed. Instead Rose hit the  concrete wall of one of the corner stairwells. Her limp body rolled to the ground.  

The Torchwood agents unleashed their full fury on the solider and her remaining comrades. Not a single Trrryr escaped conscious. Including Trag himself.

* * *

 

The Doctor stood frozen in shock. He robotically made his way to the concrete wall where she was crumpled in a heap for the second time that week. Blurs of fighting moved around him, stun guns buzzed, backup was called, arrests were made, technicians boarded the ships and cleared them as empty and disabled. He moved through it all without noticing any of it.

He crouched over her, then knelt, then brushed her hair back. She was breathing. Oh, thank Rassilon, she was breathing. She had a bruise already forming on her cheek, and her shoulder was out of joint. He snapped back into physician mode for a moment, to set it back in place properly.

As hoped, Rose cried out in pain. He shushed her as she whimpered. She opened her eyes and tried to reach for him. Satisfied that her neck again appeared uninjured by some miracle, he gathered her in his arms.

“Doctor!” she cried out his name over and over. “Doctor, it hurts. Doctor, Doctor.”

He held her as she wept. “It’s ok, Rose. I’m here,” he soothed.

She buried her head in his shoulder and held on tight.

“My head,” she mumbled. “ ’S killing me.”

The Doctor shivered, remembering a time when those words had been his death knell. She noticed his reaction and lifted her head as the pain subsided. Her eyes were red, the bruise was spreading, and her hair had fallen from its ponytail, but he didn’t notice any of these as her irises gleamed gold for a second. It was so brief, he could have imagined it, but then she gasped. She pulled away from him and held her head again, clenching her fists by her temples.

“Rose?!” he begged for any sign of what was wrong so that he could help.

She planted her palms on the roof to ground herself and stared up at him in awe.

“I remember.” A disbelieving laugh broke through. “I remember! I remember it all. Everything. You. Our life together. I remember!” She sat up straight and smiled against the pain, eyes closed, face to the sky, as if taking in its rays for the first time.

The Doctor sat speechless until she turned back to him. She brushed away tears he hadn’t known he’d been crying and kissed him hard. He grabbed her waist, hoping he wasn’t hurting her, and kissed her back. Her hand brushed through his hair like she knew he loved and rested on the back of his neck, just above his collar.

They broke for air, laughing in relief at their impossible lives. Tears ran down their dirt and sweat-stained cheeks, but they stayed there, foreheads touching.

“My husband,” Rose whispered, the words containing multitudes of awe and gratitude.

“My wife,” he returned but with adoration and joy in his tone.

“You loved me even when I didn’t know your name.” She pulled back to see his face. “You took such good care of me… such good care that I fell for you all over again. How do you keep doing that?” She huffed out a laugh and smiled at him.

“Always, Rose. I will always love you. No matter what comes our way. I will never stop loving you and caring for you and, well, I was going to say protecting you, but I haven’t done such a good job of that, have I?” He examined her injuries – at least, what he could see of them.

“Hey.” She shook her head slowly and lightly touched his cheek to draw his attention back to her eyes. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll heal. What matters is you and me. Forever.”

“Forever.” He smiled against her lips as they met again for their last kiss before re-entering the reality of cleaning up from an alien invasion. Just another day at the office.

* * *

 

After a tearful phone call to Jackie and debriefing with Pete and a medical examination from both a Torchwood physician and the Doctor, Rose was sent home, hand-in-hand with her husband, for a good 24 hours’ rest. She couldn’t stop smiling, despite the pain and soreness, at how happy she was to have her memories back.

“We don’t have to lie to Tony!” she remembered on their way home. “And I can make a meal without having to open every drawer and cabinet to see where things are. And I can pick out my own sleepwear and you don’t have to stick to your side of the bed.” She said the last one with a hint of suggestiveness in her tone and a wink.

He raised an eyebrow. “Rest. The prescription was pain medication and rest.”

“Yeah, but after the resting. C’mon, I just spent days fantasizing about how fit you are and what’s hidin’ in those drawers.”

“My _drawers_ or your clothing drawer?”

“Both,” she purred. The both giggled and stepped inside their home, well, their Earth-home, with hearts full of gratitude, devotion, and love that conquers all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with me to the brutal end, folks! haha Hope it met expectations. I promise to get back to the world of fluff and smut very soon. Already working on my next AU and it's all love and happiness (and content of an adult nature). *eyebrow waggle


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